Top 10 Companies in the World 2017

Walmart is an American multi-national company that focuses on the target market of middle class and lower middle class consumers.

Image: Wikimedia

The company believes in the philosophy of selling in high volumes, while maintaining a low profit margin, so as to pass on the benefit of the low prices to the end consumer. Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, the company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas and currently employs over 2 million employees (associates).

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Post inception, the company expanded rapidly and had opened 24 stores in Arkansas by 1967. The following year saw the company opening three more stores in Oklahoma, Missouri and Clare. By 1970, Walmart had become a household name, and was listed on the NYSE when it went public in the same year. By 1974, expansion had reached top gear, with 125 stores employing over 7500 employees and generating $340 million in revenue. Close to a decade later, Walmart had expanded to 1200 stores and was generating $16 million in revenue. In 1988, Walmart opened its first superstore in Missouri.

The 1990s witnessed Walmart entering the international market, with stores being opened in Mexico (1991), Canada (1994), Argentina and Brazil (1995).The company’s revenue touched the $300 billion mark in 2005. Walmart had built up an extensive distributive network by this time, which included 2800 stores in USA, and a further 3800 stores worldwide. In fact, by this time, there were no two places in the USA without a Walmart store farther than 100kms. Today, the firm is present in 15 different countries under 55 different names., which includes over 11,000 locations including, but not limited to, Botswana, Tanzania, Kenya, China, Japan, India and Argentina. The current CEO of Walmart is Doug McMillon, and the company employs close to 2.3 million associates worldwide.

Sales ($Bn): 485.3

Profits ($Bn): 13.6

Rank Methodology

1. The top companies of the world are selected

2. Parameters like sales and profits for these companies are taken and given weightages of 0.8 and 0.2 respectively

3. A final score is calculated and the ranks are evaluated

Rank Navigator

(Use the Rank Navigator to view the other companies in the top brand list along with their information, parameters and data figures.)